AAAS welcomes five U-M fellows

By Nancy Ross-Flanigan
News Service

Five faculty members are among 376 newly elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The fellows will be recognized for their contributions to science in February at the annual AAAS meeting in St. Louis.

The U-M fellows are:

Sushil Atreya, professor of atmospheric and space sciences. He is being honored for pioneering contributions to planetary atmosphere structure, mixing and gas chemistry throughout the solar system through the application of gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy.

Dr. Valerie Castle, Ravitz Foundation Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases and chair, Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases. Her accomplishments include documenting the role of NF-kappaB activation in chemotherapy and radiation resistance that occurs in patients with neuroblastoma, a type of cancer that arises in nerve cells and affects mostly infants and children.

Dimitri Coucouvanis, Lawrence S. Bartell Collegiate Professor of Chemistry. The association lauds Coucouvanis for the systematic synthesis of structural and partially functional analogues for the iron-sulfur and iron-molybdenum-sulfur sites in the ferredoxins and nitrogenase. Research on ferredoxins is aimed at understanding the function of these proteins, which are important in biological processes in all forms of life.

James S. Jackson, Daniel Katz Distinguished University Professor of Psychology and director, Institute for Social Research.
Jackson is cited for outstanding research contributions to understanding the role of race, culture and ethnicity in the nature and expression of complex social behaviors, and physical and mental health.

Youxue Zhang, professor of geological sciences. Zhang was selected for making exceptional advances in a wide range of geological frontiers, including the origin and evolution of the Earth, explosive volcanism and gas-driven lake eruptions.
Founded in 1848, AAAS is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science.